Bare Belly Organics . . . a review!

May 2, 2015May 3, 2015Leave a comment

As promised the other day . . . I give you the: Bare Belly Organics Review!

Bare Belly Organics is a company out of Kennesaw, GA that makes gluten free mineral sunscreen, lip balm, and various skincare products. All without any of the nine chemicals approved by the FDA as effective sunscreens that are also endocrine disruptors and can cause a plethora of unsavory side effects.

Their sunscreen is available in multiple forms: cream, face sticks, and body sticks. As well as a line of baby sunscreen. They have other products such as lotion, bug repellent, and lip balms.

The sweet ladies who own the company gave me a few products to try and review for y’all at the GFAF Expo, but all opinions expressed throughout this post are mine alone:

Their sunscreen looks a bit different once applied then your average sunscreen, and to show y’all how to apply it properly . . . I made a short little video for y’all:

Here are my thoughts on everything I tried:

The sunscreen is absolutely fantastic. It has a pleasant scent, and no weird sticky feeling once applied. Additionally, it has really great protection. I’m so pale that my mama jokingly calls me Casper on a regular basis, and even after an afternoon spent outside, I’m not burnt at all. I just reapplied the sunscreen every two hours, and Voila! No lobster skin.

Now, because of the fact that their products are chemical-free, they may soften if exposed to heat, but thankfully, it shouldn’t impede the effectiveness of the product!

Onto the next portion of our three part review:

The face stick is fantastic. It works really well, and I’ve worn it under my makeup for the past week as an extra layer of protection for my skin. It doesn’t even feel like I’m wearing sunscreen, which is a huge perk! 🙂 It also has a pleasant odor, because of essential oils added in to the formula.

Last but not least, let us discuss the lip balm!

I received the vanilla in my products to review, and purchased an orange one while at the expo. After testing both of them over the past couple weeks, I can tell you that they’re amazing. I may even be swayed away from my love of eos for Bare Belly Organics lip balm. It is that awesome. Smooth and moisturizing. I honestly don’t have any complaints.

Overall, I’m incredibly impressed with everything I had the chance to try from Bare Belly Organics, and look forward to trying more of their products in the future! I’d totally recommend them to y’all, and will purchase products from the company in the future.

Have a Stupendous Saturday y’all!!

Love,

Olivia

Bare Belly Organics (an upcoming review)

April 30, 2015April 30, 2015Leave a comment

I had fantastic plans to do an in depth review on Bare Belly Organics along with an awesome video outdoors today in order to show y’all how well their sunscreen works, but the weather decided to be uncooperative with grey skies and rain. Boo! So, hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow and look a little bit like this:

Then, I’ll be able to do that review for y’all!! 🙂

Hoping for sunny skies tomorrow, and that y’all have had a wonderful day!

Love,

Olivia

Nona Lim . . . a review!

April 28, 2015April 29, 2015Leave a comment

As promised yesterday . . . today will be a review for Nona Lim broth and noodles!

Nona Lim’s goal is to make simply delicious, convenient whole foods. They use clean, responsibly sourced ingredients to ensure that the very best tasting products end up on your table. Best of all, their products are made from scratch in using real ingredients.

They encourage you to be creative with their products, and add in your favorite veggies. I added in some spinach, fresh cilantro, two baby portobello mushrooms, some coconut oil, rice vinegar, and a splash of soy sauce. Which resulted in this:

Preparation was super simple. All you have to do is blanch the Laksa Noodles and add them into the Miso Ramen Broth along with your other ingredients, then heat everything together until it’s all uniformly hot.

The texture of the Laksa Noodles was good. They didn’t get mushy during cooking, or anything of the sort. I even left it all together to store overnight, and they still weren’t mushy.

The noodles and miso broth were really tasty overall. I really enjoyed the combination I created with the broth and veggies, and the noodles complemented it all really well.

Overall, I was very impressed with everything I tried from Nona Lim, and am hoping to find more of their products in a store near me soon. 🙂

Have an awesome day y’all!!

Love,

Olivia

Nona Lim Preview!

April 27, 2015April 28, 2015Leave a comment

Tomorrow, there will be a review here on the blog for Nona Lim! I’m so excited to share this product with y’all that I thought I’d give you a quick snapshot of what I’ll be reviewing. Without further ado . . . a review preview!! 🙂

The products above are what I will be reviewing! Nona Lim‘s Laksa Noodles and Miso Ramen Broth. I added in two chopped mushrooms, some cilantro, a splash of lime juice, a bit of rice vinegar, and a spoonful of coconut oil. Which resulted in this . . .

If you want my thoughts on all of the Nona Lim products, check back here tomorrow!

Love,

Olivia

Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels

April 24, 20152 Comments

Okie dokie y’all . . . I made Gluten Free, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies with the Enjoy Life Gluten Free, Dairy Free Chocolate Chips I received to sample at the GFAF Expo. The chocolate chips are delicious, they have an awesome flavor with no weird aftertaste! They have awesome chocolate flavor, but not in an overpowering way.

As you can see, the chocolate chips are well mixed throughout the cookies. If you’d like to make them, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
2 Tablespoons tapioca starch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels

Mix sugars and oil in a bowl
Add milk and vanilla, mix until combined
Mix dry ingredients, then combine with the wet ingredients
Fold in the chips, then allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes
Bake at 350 for around 10 minutes, or until edges are cooked and the top is slightly golden brown

Now, the dough ends up a bit oily, and spread out quite quickly when I baked it, so I added another 1/8 cup of coconut flour. You can see the difference between the two batches below. The left side is the batch with extra coconut flour.

Overall, the Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips were delicious, and had fantastic flavor. I would totally recommend them to y’all, and will definitely use them in the future for Gluten Free/ Dairy Free baking.

Have an awesome day y’all!

I’ll see you back here tomorrow for more talk on the GFAF Expo!
Love,
Olivia

Ardenne Farm Cinnamon Crunch Muffins

April 22, 2015April 23, 2015Leave a comment

While I was walking around the GFAF Expo, I was offered a free Ardenne Farm product to review for y’all. I said yes, because I’m always looking for new Gluten Free products to review for y’all. So, without further ado . . . a review of Ardenne Farm Cinnamon Crunch Muffins!!
I made them Vegan by using 1/2 cup of applesauce instead of eggs, vanilla almond milk, and coconut oil instead of butter. You can see those items in the picture below, as well as the crumb topping (white package) and the muffin mix (clear package):

After I pulled them out of the oven, I put them on a cooling rack for a couple minutes. And they turned out quite pretty if you ask me! 🙂

As for the taste of the muffins, they were delicious. They had great flavor, and the crumb topping added additional emphasis to the cinnamon flavor. Texturally, they were moist and fluffy, with the crumb topping adding a nice crunch.

I got the chance to sample a few other Ardenne Farm products at the expo, including their Sugar Cookie, and Oatmeal Cookie Mixes which were both very tasty.

All of their mixes are vegan, and contain no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Their products are all Certified Gluten Free, and are tested to ensure they contain less than 10ppm of gluten.

All of their products made in a tree nut and peanut free facility.

Overall, I’ve really liked everything I’ve tried from Ardenne Farm, and would totally recommend their products to y’all!

Have a great day!!

Love,

Olivia

A New Product Recommendation!

April 4, 2015April 14, 2015Leave a comment

So, you’re up late browsing the web for ways to make LAST MINUTE Gluten Free Rolls to pair with your Easter ham, and all the recipes have 3,012 steps that you don’t care to go through this late. Well, you should go pick up these Udi’s rolls at your local grocer! I found them at Ingles, but they’re available at other retailers as well. They’re delicious, and will be the perfect accent to your Easter Dinner.

I do have one simple suggestion though, seal them in foil packets in groups of two with 1/2 teaspoon of water to cook. It will make them far softer.

Hope this has helped y’all a bit!
Happy Easter!
Love,
Olivia

Gluten Free Find at Ingles!

March 26, 2015April 14, 2015Leave a comment

I don’t usually shop at Ingles . . . mostly because I tend to find better deals on Gluten Free Items at other stores, but last night after Bible Study we had a quick errand to run, and stopped into Ingles to pick up the couple things on our list.
While I was there I happened to stumble upon these:

If y’all know anything about Ingles, you know that Laura Lynn is their store brand, which usually makes things a bit cheaper. For example, these were $2.99 for 10! Which isn’t bad. They smell like fresh waffle comes when their cooking, which is kind of fun. I think their tasty, and may do a review later this week. But, I just wanted y’all to know these were available, because it was news to me. 🙂

Have a Tremendous Thursday y’all!!
Love,
Olivia

Krusteaz Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins . . . a review!

March 19, 2015April 14, 2015Leave a comment

Today I’ll be reviewing the Krusteaz Gluten Free Blueberry Muffin Mix. I picked this muffin mix up at our local Big Lots for $3.80, but you can find it on Amazon too, if you want to pay almost $8 for it. 🙂

Flavor:
Fantastic. They’re sweet without being overly sweet, and they have awesome blueberry flavor. There’s no weird “Gluten Free” flavor, in fact . . . they taste just like I remember their glutinous ones tasting. Ten out of ten stars for flavor!!

Texture:
Quite fluffy. So many Gluten Free baked goods end up quite dense or dry. These muffins turned out light and airy with just the right amount of moisture. Ten out of ten stars for texture.

Quantity:
Contrary to the pictures, the mix yields twelve muffins, which is nice. We had them for breakfast three times the week I made them, and they stayed tasty over that three day period. Ten out of ten stars for that!!

Overall:
These mix makes delicious muffins, with decent prices, and an airy texture. I would totally recommend them! 😉

Have a great day y’all!!
Love,
Olivia

The Great Chicken Strip Challenge!

March 11, 2015April 10, 2015Leave a comment

Today, two brands are going to battle!! Who will be crowned the winner? Stay tuned to find out . . .

Today we’re matching up two of the Gluten Free Chicken Strip brands to determine which will come out a winner! ; )

In the left corner we have . . . Perdue Simply Smart Gluten Free Breaded Chicken Breast Tenders, and . . .

In the right corner we have . . . Tyson Gluten Free Breaded Chicken Strips!

The two opponents will be judged in three categories: Portion, Flavor and Texture. They’ll be scored separately on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the best, 1 being the worst), then they’ll be scored comparatively for judging purposes. We’ll begin with the Tyson Chicken Strips . . .

Portion:
Disappointing. We paid around $6 for the bag, and we received six chicken strips, and a chicken “nubbin”, because there is no way this thing could be dubbed a “strip”. Only two of the strips were average sized; the rest were itty bitty midget strips. Out of 5 points, these receive a 2 for portion, because the bag COULD have been empty, and that would’ve been the worst. Right?

Flavor:
Not bad. They were kind of peppery, which was tasty. Other than that, there wasn’t much flavor. I kind of wish they’d been a bit spicier. 3/5 points for flavor.

Texture:
Unimpressive. Even after following the directions, they still didn’t crisp up. In fact, the breading had a slightly mushy quality to it with no real crispyness. 2/5 for flavor.

Onto the Perdue Chicken Tenders!!

Portion:
15 chicken strips for about the same price. I think this is great, because I’m all for companies that give you more for your money! 🙂 Also, almost all of them were average or reasonable-sized chicken strips, so that’s a win. 5/5 Points for portion.

Flavor:
These are really tasty; there’s nothing bland about them. They’re very simply flavorful! Points for the flavor . . . 4/5, as I think they could have used a bit more spice to help the chicken flavor stand out.

Texture:
Perfect. They’re crispy and crunchy without being dry. No mushiness. Just crispy chicken strips. 5/5 for Texture.

Now . . . onto the overall results! I created this nifty little table to show the scores in each category and to judge them comparatively! So, go ahead and check it out: